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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

February 5, 2004

For the Kids

Leave a Comment / Kids & Teens /

Holiday Branches

Tu B’Shevat higi’ah, chag lailanot!

Tu B’Shevat is here, a holiday for the trees. Make sure you join in on some of the fun events that will be happening: Go to the Shalom Institute for a Tu B’Shevat celebration on Feb. 8, the Westside JCC for an afternoon of fun or to the Zimmer Children’s Museum for your very own tree-planting kit. Make Tu B’Shevat origami at the Jewish Community Library of Los Angeles, or take a moonlight hike with TreePeople. (For more information, visit the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life of Southern California at www.coejlsc.org.

What Was the First Paper Made From?

Today, we mostly make paper from trees. Five-thousand years ago, the Egyptians made paper from a reed that grew along the Nile river. The Egyptians would pick it, soak it, pound it and weave it together to create a writing surface. What is this reed called?

One to Grow on

1) Where was the first garden planted on Earth and who planted it?

a) Near the Nile; the Egyptians

b) In Eden; God

c) Sumer; the Sumerians

2) What did Noah plant right after the flood?

a) A corn field

b) An orchard

c) A vineyard

3) After the flood, the dove brought back a branch. From what kind of tree?

a) Olive

b) Pomegranate

c) Loquat

E-mail your answers to abbygilad@yahoo.com  for a gift certificate.

Trees in Israel

Acacia, Almond, Carob, Cypress, Date, Eucalyptus, Fig, Oak, Olive, Pine, Pistachio

For the Kids Read More »

Friends Found a World Away

Leave a Comment / Travel /

Every other year, our congregation travels to a different part of the Jewish world to meet and, if necessary, help our fellow Jews. Having traveled to Israel, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union many times, as well as Turkey, Morocco, Spain, Argentina and Brazil, our experiences have mostly been with communities under political, demographic or economic siege. This trip was different.

Imagine this scene: We’re in Sydney, Australia, in a neighborhood known as The Rocks, where in the 18th century exiled British prisoners disembarked and experienced their new home. Most were convicted of petty crimes — poor people who stole a loaf of bread — and some were political prisoners whom England feared. After 1776, the penal colony in Georgia was no longer available, so convicts were sent to Australia, both to get rid of them and for future colonization.

In Australia, one’s yichus is enhanced by being descended from an exiled British convict. Everyone, if lucky enough, brags about it. Even in shul, on Shabbat, before we asked someone how long his family has been in Australia, a macher proudly kvells and shares his imprisoned family tree.

So, here we were, at The Rocks, chanting Havdalah, singing and swaying outdoors, with arms around each other, gazing at the incredible beauty of Sydney Harbor, proud and free as Jews. We were even joined by locals George and Adele who, though Jewish (at least George), hadn’t seen a Havdalah service in quite a while. When we finished, a woman approached and asked from where we were visiting. When we answered "Irvine, California," she asked: "Do you know Natalye and Howard Black, because I’m their machatenester [in-law]!"

"Not only do we know them, but we brought them," we answered, "and they’re right over there!"

It’s a small Jewish world, much less than "six degrees of separation." A day before, the waiter at Doyle’s Restaurant was curious about another couple on our tour, the Hemplings, and when asked by them what kind of fish does he recommend, the waiter answered: "Do you, by any chance, like gefilte fish?"

Voila — another landsman!

Although there are only 100,000 Jews out of a population of 18 million, we managed to meet many of them in both expected and unexpected places.

Of course, our synagogue visits were delightful. For our first Shabbat in Sydney, we visited Temple Emanuel, a liberal congregation, whose rabbi, Jeffrey Kamins, is from Los Angeles. A week later in Melbourne, we met Rabbi Fred Morgan born in Syracuse, N.Y., who showed us his synagogue’s incredible stained-glass windows that portrayed holidays and history. They were created by the foremost stained-glass artist in Australia.

At both synagogues, the services were familiar, albeit more formal. We were delighted that we chose liberal congregations, since most tourists only visit Orthodox synagogues since they’re in the oldest parts of the inner city and tour guides can get to them more easily. The problem is, however, that tourists, who are usually non-Orthodox, rarely meet and worship with their religious peers.

At the Jewish Museum in Sydney, we were impressed by the beautiful Star of David design in the floor, ceiling and walls. Most moving, however, was Lotte, a Holocaust survivor from Bratislava, who spoke to us and emphasized what is now too familiar a story — how a majority of European Jewish children perished. By killing them first, the Nazis hoped to put an end to future generations of Jews.

She spoke painfully , as if it were yesterday, of being called a "Jewish pig" and how ashamed she was, as a teenager, of having to undress in front of and be shaved by male Nazi officers.

Although she and other Jews generally feel safe in Australia today, they remember how only one group boldly advocated saving the Jews of Europe 64 years ago. It was a few weeks after Kristallnacht when the Aborigines League protested to Hitler’s consul in Melbourne. A few weeks before we arrived in Australia, the Aborigines were honored for their heroism by the Jewish community at Melbourne’s Holocaust Museum; Jews are now in the forefront of advocating on behalf of aboriginal land rights, including placing markers on Jewish buildings naming the aboriginal owners of the land.

Australia’s Sept. 11 was Oct. 12, 2002, when its tourists were murdered by Islamic terrorists in Bali. Australians are strong supporters of the United States in its fight against terrorism and are worried about the J.I. (Jemaah Islamiah), an Australian Islamic organization that aims to create an Islamic state in Australia "even if it takes 100 years."

When we visited the U.S. consulate in Sydney, we were briefed in regard to Australia’s strong support for the United States, as well as its ambivalence about our nuclear policy. Nevertheless, one gets the feeling that Aussies genuinely like Americans, without wanting to become like us. Their culture is slower, more laid back and easy going, in part due to an amazing amount of physical space — only 18 million people on land the size of the United States.

Physically, Sydney looks like Vancouver, and Melbourne like Chicago, and each feels its rivalry with the other. Jewishly, Sydney is comparable to Tel Aviv with its cafes and nightlife, while the more staid Melbourne is like Jerusalem — especially with the largest day school in the world (2,500 students) and a more observant population.

Historically, Jews were quite instrumental in the intellectual and economic development of Australia — no surprise to us — founding museums and universities, establishing newspapers and large businesses and finding prominence in the legal profession.

No trip to Australia would have been complete without cruising on a boat in Sydney Harbor, visiting the Opera House and strolling through urban parks, gardens and charming neighborhoods. Wherever we went, the food was delicious and plentiful, even in modest restaurants, and people were incredibly unpretentious, gracious and friendly, with a lovely self-deprecating humor.

Of course, another not-to-be-missed visit was to an animal sanctuary, where we held and watched baby kangaroos hop in and out of pouches and where we fed koala bears. The animal and plant life of Australia is vividly colorful and fascinating in its diversity.

So, too, when we traveled to the Great Barrier Reef, we were mesmerized by the bluish green clarity of the water and the fantastic fish. Some of us also met Golan Ayalon, one of the few Jews and the only Israeli in Cairns, one of the towns near the reef. He’s one of the major distributors of Aboriginal art and a friendly hippie type who liked Cairns, because it reminded him of his hometown of Eilat — full of water sports, muggy and relaxed. In Cairns, we also met a Jewish couple from Kentucky; the man’s brother belongs to a Reconstructionist synagogue in Philadelphia.

When we visited the Aboriginal village of Kuranda, we passed through forests and by waterfalls galore, captivated by birds and butterflies of every imaginable hue. We walked through rainforests, learned about making fire, listened to Aboriginal folklore and playing of the didgeridoo.

The sad history of the indigenous people of Australia was truly heartbreaking. Like our own Native Americans, they were pushed further and further inland to make way for "civilized Europeans." Then, as a "favor," they were converted to Christianity, but still treated in a segregated, second-class way. Disease and violence destroyed too many lives and families and there was forced separation of children from parents in order to "educate" them. It has left permanent societal scars. (The 2002 film, "Rabbit Proof Fence," details this misery through a true personal story describing an arrogant social policy that only ended in 1970.)

The xenophobic anti-immigration policy of Australia, only modified in recent decades, created a smug, racially insensitive and insular society that many Australians now realize was a mistake. The challenge to Australia today is accepting that, over time, it will continue to become a more Pacific Rim, less Eurocentric country, with diverse religions and races, and seeing this development as a strength.

In our closing circle, at the end of our 16-day journey, many spoke of the incredible physical beauty of the land, the vastness of each country and the genuine warmth and kind humor of the people. We shared a deep feeling for the importance of meeting Jews from all over the world — especially in these less visited Jewish communities — and how instantly we bonded with our fellow Yidden. Even more, we understood the time-honored Jewish maxim that "all Jews are responsible for one another."


Arnold Rachlis is rabbi of University Synagogue in Irvine.

Friends Found a World Away Read More »

A Berry-Bursting Celebration

Leave a Comment / Celebrations/Simchas /

When my daughter was born, I walked the floors of our Atlanta home night after night, day after day, holding her while she slept or when she cried, stopping always in front of the wall of backyard windows framing a forest of trees. As I grew into my unexpected role of single motherhood, I watched the bare trees bend, and sometimes break under the weight of silver winter icicles. Then, as if reborn, I saw the same trees stretch tall and proud with tight spring blossoms of white, pink and lavender, before expanding, under the summer rains, into a lush landscape of green. Finally, these magnificent trees transformed, as if to colored music, into passionate reds, singing oranges and dancing yellows of fall, just as we packed our boxes and moved away.

In our cozy Portland apartment, my daughter and I would often sit by a tall living room window and look at the plump, round bushes bouncing under the rain and the rows of healthy trees hovering over the parking lot, filling the surrounding hills in a green mist.

After exhausting, frenetic days of unpacking in our apartment in Los Angeles, I finally sat down at my desk positioned in front of a window to write. But all I could see were white stucco walls, black wires and, only if I leaned forward and looked up, the long, skinny necks of two distant palm trees. Right then I understood how profoundly trees define place. I prayed to find a way to embrace this one.

Tu B’Shevat, the new year for trees, emphasizes the nourishing, even spiritual, relationship between man and trees.

"For a human is like the tree of the field" (Deuteronomy 20:19), the kabbalists believed. So, in addition to donating money to plant much-needed trees in Israel, there is — according to Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in "Jewish Literacy" (William Morrow, 1991) — the Tu B’Shevat seder, which kabbalists began in the 16th century. The kabbalists believed eating a variety of tree-born fruits during a seder ritual — such as olives, dates, grapes, figs, pomegranates, apples, walnuts, carob, pears and cherries — was a tangible way of improving our spiritual selves. So I decided to honor Tu B’Shevat by making a fruit and nut sauce I could eat every day.

I started by toasting some chopped walnuts and adding three different fruit juices. Then I cut up some plump medjool dates and added fresh cranberries. As I stirred the softening fruits over a flame, I recalled the urban shock I went into after our move to Los Angeles, and how on long walks with my daughter, I recovered my balance through observing the trees.

First, I discovered a tree leaning over our mailbox that grows tiny white peaches perfect for summer pies. And then, I noticed just above head-height branches at the end of our walkway, dangling, sun-glistening lemons close enough to touch. And each fall, as we passed the Japanese-style garden on the way to my daughter’s school, I watched the green leaves of one sculptured tree open up to blossoming persimmons.

As the cranberry walnut date sauce thickened to a velvet red, I remembered the squished berries that used to stick to our shoes, until my daughter and I learned which sidewalks to walk on and which ones to avoid, when the trees in our neighborhood dropped their inedible red fruits.

Unfortunately, I haven’t learned to love the urban view from my Los Angeles apartment. But from my desk over the last five years, I have looked above the city walls at those skinny palms and watched them stand ghost still against a summer cobalt sky, tussle playfully in a spring breeze or lean desperately, without breaking, in fierce winter winds. From those two trees, I have learned how to be in a place that is not yet home — to be still, to play and to bend, when necessary, without breaking.

Cranberry Walnut Date Sauce

This sauce has a wonderful bright taste that I love with my bowl of fruit and yogurt in the morning. Because of its full texture, it is also delicious as a spread on a thick slice of date nut bread. And the majestic red color and sweet aroma of these cooked berries is guaranteed to make you grateful for fruit bearing trees every time you make it.

1¼2 cup walnuts, chopped

1¼2 cup orange juice

1¼4 cup unsweetened pineapple juice (from 20-ounce can)

1¼2 cup unsweetened pineapple chunks, sliced small (from can)

1¼4 teaspoon lemon juice, fresh

1¼3 cup sugar

1¼4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1¼2 cup fresh medjool dates, chopped

3 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed well

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir walnuts constantly until aromatic and toasted, approximately one to two minutes. Add remaining ingredients to walnuts, stirring well. Cover and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer uncovered until most berries pop open and liquid thickens, approximately 20 to 30 minutes. Make sure to stir every few minutes and if necessary, add 1¼4 cup of water to keep ingredients moist but not watery. Sauce thickens as it cools. Transfer to medium bowl to cool. Refrigerate until use.

Servings: Two and a half cups

Serving Suggestions: As a side to meats, a sauce for yogurts or a spread on breads.


Lisa Solomon’s food articles have been seen in several publications, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Jewish Week and The Canadian Jewish News.

A Berry-Bursting Celebration Read More »

A Jewish Diet

Leave a Comment / Celebrations/Simchas /

The Tu B’Shevat seder, with its many fruit and nuts, challenges us to reconsider our usual diets, and the recommended Jewish diet. While the FDA recommends a diet high in grains, rich in nutrients and low in saturated fats, Judaism recommends a diet high in holiness, rich in consciousness and connection, and low in selfishness. These four factors guide not only a Jewish diet, but also a Jewish life.

As Jews, we’re commanded to strive for holiness in every facet of our lives. One ritual and spiritual practice that helps us infuse holiness into our daily life, is offering blessings. Offering a bracha or a blessing with mindful consciousness — known in Hebrew as kavanah — helps us transform apparently mundane acts into moments rich with spiritual potential. Saying a blessing before and after each meal ensures that we stop to appreciate our food and its Ultimate Source. In our tradition, eating without blessings to thank God is like stealing from the Source of Life, while robbing ourselves of spiritual awareness. Judaism tells us a proper diet should include healthy portions of holiness — ideally beginning and ending each meal with blessings.

A second key ingredient in a Jewish diet is consciousness. Maintaining a traditional Jewish diet requires a high degree of consciousness in order to follow the ritual guidelines of kashrut commonly described as keeping kosher. The word kosher, which means ritually fit, can apply to a wide range of subjects from the food we eat to the wedding rings we may wear. In the dietary realm, the core ideas of kashrut are defined in the Bible. While the biblical Garden of Eden narrative clearly defines a vegetarian diet as ideal, our Noah narrative highlights the human lust for blood and meat. In Judaism meat eating can be seen as a concession to human blood lust, which was allowed, but highly regulated through ancient cultic ritual and the practice of kashrut.

As we know, the biblical traditions of kashrut include definitions, prohibitions and guidelines for treating animals. Kosher land animals have cloven hoofs and chew their cud (thus cows and most herbivores can be kosher, but pigs and all carnivores are treif, or un-kosher). Kosher fowl essentially include all birds except birds of prey. Kosher marine life must have fins and scales and may not be scavengers. According to kashrut, meat and dairy products may not be mixed, and traditional kosher homes have separate dishes, silverware, cookware and utensils for meat and dairy products.

While kashrut allows the slaughter and consumption of animals for food, it demands that the animals be treated with respect. Judaism requires the schochet (ritual slaughterer) to perform his duties consciously minimizing pain and maximizing reverence for life and the Life Source.

A third dish in the Jewish diet is connection. Our foods connect us symbolically to the teaching of our tradition, and sociologically to our heritage. This is best reflected in the Passover meal, or seder. Tradition teaches us that in this ritual meal, bitter horseradish represents the bitterness of slavery and saltwater reminds us of the tears of bondage, while fresh spring herbs symbolize the promise of hope. Through the Passover meal, food helps us symbolically reenact the journey from slavery to freedom. Similarly, the oily latkes and sufganiyot of Chanukah, remind us of the remarkable events surrounding the rededication of the oil lamps that burned in the ancient Temple.

A Jewish diet also connects people through a program of communal meals. One of the joys of the Sabbath is joining friends and family for a celebratory meal — by tradition this should be the best meal of the week. Every life-cycle event — bris, baby namings, b’nai mitvah, weddings and funerals — is accompanied by a communal meal. These meals and the food we often serve, connect us not only to our family, but to our particular familial heritage.

Our tradition demands that our diet be not only high in holiness and rich in consciousness and connection but also low in selfishness. We are commanded to share our bread with the hungry, even to feed our animals before we feed ourselves. At every Passover seder, we’re expected to call out to all who may pass, all who are hungry, let them come and eat. We strive to make providing food to the hungry a regular part of our Jewish practice, contributing to food pantries and volunteering at soup kitchens.

Mazon is a Hebrew word that means food. It is also an international Jewish organization that urges us to donate 3 percent of the cost of a celebration (such as a wedding or bar mitzvah party) to help feed the hungry the world over. Our blessing after meals includes the phrase "Chazan et hakol," praising God for providing food for all who live. We realize we must be partners with God to realize this promise.

As we know, there is enough food to sustain all who live on this planet if only we’ll be partners with God in the distribution of our resources — learning to share our abundant blessings with those in need. At times, in our world full of hunger, poverty and suffering, the blessings of holiness, compassion, connection and selflessness may seem distant ideals. The Source of Life and Sustenance, which we sometimes call God, may seem distant when we see the eyes of a hungry child.

Leo Baeck, a great rabbi who was sent to concentration camps by the Nazis, was once asked where God was during the Holocaust. His answer? Every time one prisoner helped another to drag a heavy wagon or shared one hard crust of bread with another starving inmate, God was there in the helping and sharing.

May we who are blessed with abundance, be blessed also with the strength, will and conviction to share what we have.

This is the foundation of a Jewish spiritual diet.


Sheryl Nosan-Blank is rabbi at Temple Beth Torah of the San Fernando Valley.

A Jewish Diet Read More »

The Other Seder

Leave a Comment / Up Front /

It may be the season for planting trees, but Yosef Abramowitz is pushing for sundae-making this Tu B’Shevat. In what he calls a "revamped" and "recast" seder in honor of the New Year of Trees, Abramowitz and the staff of BabagaNewz, an educational magazine for Jewish kids, are teaching would-be arborists to plant "seeds of hope" in the form of nuts and candy, using cookie crumbs instead of dirt, and wishes instead of water.

Spiritually devoid? Downright ridiculous?

Try uplifting and accessible, said Abramowitz, CEO of Jewish Family & Life!, an educational multimedia enterprise, who co-wrote the seder, "Seeds of Hope," with educator Marilyn Fine.

Looking like a toned-down supplement to the BabagaNewz magazine, the guide’s tan pages and illustrations of Israel differ from the rest of the magazine’s bright and graphics-heavy content. This Tu B’Shevat haggadah seems more tasteful than revolutionary, with photos of Israel, fruit and flowers gracing its margins.

But Abramowitz said his seder operates in markedly new territory.

The New Year of Trees, a relatively minor Jewish holiday, harkens the beginning of spring in Israel, and originally established the start of the tithing season.

Today, it is often recognized as a Jewish Earth Day.

Like its more-established and popular sister, the Passover seder, the Tu B’Shevat ritual revolves around four cups of wine. For Tu B’Shevat, the first glass is white, the next two are a mixture of red and white and the last is all red.

The custom, created in the 17th century by Jewish mystics in Safed, in what is now Israel, also features eating four different categories of fruit, distinguished by the edibility of the fruit’s flesh and pit, which are said to symbolize the four seasons.

Abramowitz’s lessons are imparted within the six-page, glossy haggadah distributed to 34,000 middle school students in 900 religious schools who subscribe to BabagaNewz, which is published monthly during the school year, in conjunction with the Avi Chai Foundation.

During the course of the seder, the traditional four cups of wine are drunk, and lessons on modern Israeli history pepper the liturgy. Students learn about Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, and are prompted to act out stories and ask themselves, "Who inspires hope for you?"

Copies of the BabagaNewz seder can be found in BabagaNewz magazines or online at The Other Seder Read More »

Viva la Cinema!

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Film, Up Front /

In Veracruz, Mexico, there lived a group of people who for generations had avoided eating pork and lit candles on Friday night without knowing why. In the early 1980s, some members of the group discovered their Jewish roots and converted to Judaism, and now, 20 years later, are still struggling for acceptance from the Jewish community in Mexico.

Their story is being told in "Eight Candles," a 2002 Mexican documentary, one of nine Jewish films being shown in Mexico’s first Jewish film festival.

"This opportunity is amazing, because for this first time the documentary is going to confront its intended audience," said "Eight Candles" director Sandro Halphen, who lives in Mexico City. "I hadn’t found venues to reach out to them."

The Jan 25.-Feb 3 sold-out festival aimed to teach local Jews about their heritage and non-Jews about a community that is sometimes misunderstood.

"We are looking at this festival not as a Jewish event," said Aron Margolis, director of the nonprofit Mexico International Jewish Film Festival. "This is an excellent opportunity for Mexican society to get to know the Jewish community. The Jews in Mexico are known as a community that is very closed and doesn’t let people in to get to know us. But the more they know us, the more they understand us."

There are about 50,000 Jews in Mexico, a predominately Catholic country. Most live in Mexico City. The sold-out festival in Mexico City is one of only a handful of Spanish-language Jewish film festivals in the world.

The Mexico festival features nine films, including "The Burial Society" (Canada) "Time of Favor" (Israel) and "Trembling Before G-d" (United States), a documentary about gay and lesbian Orthodox and Chasidic Jews.

Margolis hopes the Spanish-translated films can be shown elsewhere Latin America.

Viva la Cinema! Read More »

Your Letters

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor /

Kosher Consumers

I was dismayed to see inaccuracies in Gaby Wenig’s article, “Kosher Consumers for a New Age” (Jan.23). She reports that USDA laws permit canned or packaged vegetarian or dairy products to contain up to .2 percent of unlisted animal byproducts, which could also include insect pieces and rat hair.

This is a repetition of a misleading old fallacy (usually 2 percent). Firstly, it is the FDA that regulates prepared food ingredients, not the USDA, and in a simple perusal of the FDA rules and regulations, one would discover that all ingredients must be listed in order of volume. Below 2 percent, the order is not required, but must still be listed, down to trace (nonedible) ingredients that are less than a few parts per million, and sometimes even those must be listed.

And, as far as I know, unhygienic additions such as rat hairs and insect parts (it’s only whole bugs that are forbidden by the Torah), revolting as it sounds, do not present a kashrut problem, and are often found in such Kashrut Agency supervised products as cereals and breads.

Martin Brody, Westwood

Zvi Mazel

Regarding the action taken by Zvi Mazel, Israel’s ambassador to Sweden (“Home Repair,” Jan. 23), Mazel is a career diplomat in the service of the State of Israel. He is very experienced. He knew that the sorriest example he could offer would be to remain silent and to do nothing. He is a shining example to decent people everywhere.

Yossie Kram, Los Angeles

Kabbalah Centre

I am compelled to write you for the first time, unfortunately in outrage. The blasphemous cover of the last Jewish Journal included the holy symbol of the sfirot combined with pictures of Madonna and Britney Spears representing each sfirah (Jan. 30). I understand these pop stars study a light form of kabbalah, but at what expense will you go to prove a point?

The article that followed was nothing short of gossip, or in Jewish terms loshen hara, from a person who had ulterior motives by putting down an organization he knows nothing about. If this person wants to make an informed opinion as to what the Kabbalah Centre teaches then he needs to attend the full course and then he will be more qualified to give an opinion.

I have not mentioned many of the other forms of gossip found in this article and it is not my intent to say that the Kabbalah Centre is a perfect organization.

I attended and took classes their for six years and with all its faults it is because of these classes that I began my path back to Judaism and today I am shomer Shabbos and observe all of the Jewish holidays. For most people the center is the first stop on their journey back to Judaism; and as for the non-Jews, most of the teachings taught at the center are less kabbalah and more basic principles that involve concepts like sharing to draw the light of Hashem.

Jay Davies, Santa Monica

Benny Morris

It is hard to believe that Benny Morris, an enlightened Israeli historian, would condone the expulsion of innocent populations as a way to peace (“Q&A With Benny Morris,” Jan. 30). But there it is! He puts himself in the company with the likes of King Ferdinand and Isabella, Maria Teresa, Hitler, Stalin, Hamas and any number of medieval and modern despots.

His argument is especially strange, since he writes a whole book on how the expulsion of Arabs created — not eliminated — the obstacle to peace between the Arabs and the Jews. Even his analysis of how the creation of Israel could not have been possible were it not for expulsion, is false. In 1948, we grabbed much more territory than mandated by the U.N Partition Plan. The plan addressed the demographic issue.

Now that the truth is out about Haganah atrocities, how can we claim that, unlike the Arab suicide bombers, we never spilled innocent blood of civilians? Is Arafat to restrain himself from “making omelets” when Morris claims that it is perfectly all right to “break eggs” in the process?

Rabbi Hillel, the premier guiding spirit of Judaism — do unto others as you would to yourself — must be turning over in his grave.

Shame on us.

Irwin Grossman, Los Angeles

Security Barrier

The nerve of this Luis Lainer to write, “Just like Groucho Marx … Sharon is declaring his intention to leave and stay at the same time” (“Hello I Must Be Going,” Jan. 23).

We believe that the State of Israel has been forced to build this fence or barrier to try to protect the lives of the people of the democratic State of Israel.

Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Braaf, Woodland Hills

Vegetarian Diet

Thank you for printing Richard H. Schwartz’s article, “Mad People Disease” (Jan. 16). I appreciated his urging Jews to be a “light unto nations” by promoting compassion for all living creatures. I am struggling with cancer and agree with Rachel Carson, who wrote “Silent Spring” in the 1960s, that cancer is an inevitable result of poor agricultural decisions, pesticides, and as Schwartz points out, “the many ways that the widespread production and consumption of meat and animal products threatens humanity.”

I believe the widespread epidemic of breast cancer, just to name one cancer, is today’s “wake-up call” (referring to Schwartz’s reference to a modern-day Joseph interpreting dreams Pharaoh dreams) that would help imperiled people like me and others, including animals who suffer on this human-ravaged planet.

Joy Oakes, Santa Monica

Adam Gilad

Adam Gilad’s column is a thinly disguised personal ad (“The First Step,” Jan. 23). He tells us he is recently divorced, but is into long-term relationships, he has a new car, he is interested in the arts, he enjoys planning dates, goes to expensive restaurants and he will not even consider sex unless it might lead to marriage! My guess is that Adam’s mother reads The Jewish Journal.

Anonymous, Brentwood

‘The Passion’

Regarding Mel Gibson’s interpretation of the Gospel stories called “The Passion,” these Passion plays have been going on for a long time and have little or nothing to do with history or fact, and a lot to do with faith and belief (“Will Jesus Film Poison Christian-Jewish Ties?” and “No Local Plans to Quench ‘Passion,'” Jan. 30).

Unfortunately, Gibson’s slavish loyalty to the views of the early Christian fathers will not do anything constructive to increase the great tendency in our 21st century society to bridge the gaps or barriers to religious and social pluralism and genuine tolerance so necessary for our democracy and peace of mind.

Steve Roisman, Los Angeles

Living Wage

Marc Ballon’s article “Low Wages Force Workers to Struggle” (Jan. 2) bravely and insightfully addressed a serious issue for the Jewish community. It’s always easier to look at the injustices suffered by workers outside of one’s own community than inside.

AFSCME Local 800, which represents 450 agency workers, is dedicated to fair, livable wages for employees of the Jewish community. For example, in last year’s negotiations we secured an agreement with Jewish Family Service (JFS) to raise the minimum hourly wage rate to $9 per hour. This resulted in approximately 20 employees getting raises beyond the 2 percent cost-of-living raise we negotiated for everyone.

In addition, for several years JFS management had routinely asked the union to agree to waive the city of Los Angeles’ “living-wage” ordinance. Last year, reflecting a change in policy, the union refused to do so, resulting, I believe, in three other workers getting additional increases.

Despite these modest successes, major struggles remain for the union. Employees in many classifications continue to earn less than their counterparts in non-Jewish agencies. In the last negotiations, we tried to get management to join us and jointly survey wages in the nonprofit community, but they would not. We will try again more forcefully in negotiations this spring. We also hope to bring other workers into the union, those who work at the many nonunion Jewish agencies and temples, so that we can speak with one voice for all and help bring justice and a living wage to all.

Jon Lepie, Labor Consultant to AFSCME, Local 800 Washington, D.C.

Irving Moskowitz

Whether the Irving Moskowitz organization should be granted a gaming license to fund extremist groups in Israel ought to be contextualized in the framework of the larger war against terror in which the United States and Israel are allies (“Gaming Hearing Takes Israel Spin,” Dec. 26). When, for instance, the Moskowitz people sponsor a Web site game, “Judenrat,” which invites participants to assassinate Israeli government leaders, that is the kind of hate speech that the California Gaming Commission needs to evaluate in determining the applicant’s moral fitness to be granted a gaming license. But, beyond the issues of political racketeering in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem that have been raised, The Jewish Journal article did not address the documented instances of political violence sponsored by the Moskowitz organization.

In this post-Sept. 11 world in which the forces of freedom are fighting an organized barbarism menacing the biblical values of both Israel and America, even the issuance of a gambling permit is at stake in the equation of homeland security. Just as the Shin Bet and other Israeli security authorities have had to contend with Moskowitz’s interference with their struggle against violence and terror in the Jewish state, so the California authorities are fulfilling a crucial role in the war against terror by regulating funds that may be used to make Israel’s struggle more difficult. As Californians and voters, we should expect from our public officials nothing less.

Rabbi Jeffrey N. Ronald. Lands of the Covenant, Ltd.

Correction

In “Home Repair” (Jan. 23), an incorrect Web siteaddress was given for the charity Susan’s House. The correct address for Susan’sHouse is www.kys.org.il/susanhome.html .

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The Circuit

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Justices on Justice

Justice Alex Kozinski, a Reagan-appointed conservative on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, joined Justice Stephen Reinhardt, a Carter-appointed liberal also on the 9th Circuit, for a lively discussion of recent Supreme Court precedents at the The Jewish Federation’s 12th annual Supreme Court Panel at the Regent Beverly Wilshire on Jan. 22.

Kathleen M. Sullivan, dean, and Richard E. Lang Stanley Morrison professor of law at Stanford Law School, moderated the discussion, which covered six recent decisions and five upcoming ones. The two justices sparred on matters of race, affirmative action, school vouchers, capital punishment, the three-strikes law, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and gay marriage.

Strong Foundation

“I couldn’t imagine that the foundation would become what it has,” said founder Steven Spielberg in marking the 10th anniversary of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.

Spielberg, who conceived the foundation’s mission after directing “Schindler’s List,” has reason for quiet satisfaction. During the past decade, the foundation has videotaped the remembrances of more than 50,000 Holocaust survivors and eyewitnesses and is now cataloging a staggering 120,000 hours of testimony.

But as foundation President Doug Greenberg reminded the 500 dinner guests in an impressive tent on the Universal Studios back lot, “Every single voice in our archives speaks for 120 others who perished in the Holocaust.”

Honoree at the event was Ambassador for Humanity Richard Lovett, president of the Creative Artists Agency and considered one of the most influential people in the entertainment industry.

Lovett kept the tone light and presented two 10th-graders from a goal-setting class he teaches at Venice High School.

Comic icon Mike Myers, in a subdued mood, served as the evening’s host and dedicated his appearance to his father, who had served in the British army during World War II.

A special performance by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora was greeted with enthusiastic applause. — Tom Tugend, Contributing Editor

Book of Samuels

Bet Tzedek Legal Services started a week of solid achievement with a banquet of solid fundraising. Over 800 guests gathered Jan. 18 at the Century Plaza Hotel to honor Sandor E. Samuels, recipient of the Luis Lainer Founder’s Award, and the law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, LLP, which received the Rose L. Schiff Commitment to Justice Award.

The event raised $2.2 million for the 30-year-old organization, whose staff of 54, along with more than 400 active volunteers, provides legal services to the needy and underserved of all races and religions. Bet Tzedek recently won a landmark decision on behalf of garment workers.

“Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere,” said Executive Director Mitch Kamin at the event, quoting the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Current board President Nancy Sher Cohen reminded the audience that one in four Angelenos lives in poverty. L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky praised the organization for pursuing justice, “not just for ourselves, but for everyone.”

Firm partners James P. Clark and Scott Edelman, both former chairman of the Bet Tzedek board of directors, accepted the Schiff Award on behalf of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, whose financial and pro bono contributions to Bet Tzedek date back 15 years.

Honoree Samuels, a Fairfax High School and Princeton University graduate, who grew up blocks from Bet Tzedek’s headquarters, is senior managing director of Countrywide Financial Corp. He also serves on the boards of University of Judaism, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, Shalhevet School and Adat Ari El synagogue.

“Tzedaka [charity] is the chance to show we are not indifferent to the pleas of others,” Samuels told the crowd of mostly lawyers. “For those of you who have not found the right outlet, take on a pro bono client through Bet Tzedek.”

Samuels credited his wife, Dr. Claudia Wallack Samuels, for much of his success. “You know what they say,” he said. “Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.”

Businessman, philanthropist and former National Basketball Association all-star Oscar Robertson also addressed the audience. Others in attendance were Bet Tzedek co-founders Luis Lanier and Stan Levy, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, Randall Kaplan, and Shalhevet Founder Jerry Friedman. — Rob Eshman, Editor in Chief

Museum of Stars

The place to see A-list movie stars these days is the Los Angeles’ Museum of Tolerance. On Jan. 6, the museum, with Amnesty International and Lantern Lane Entertainment, held a screening of the Nick Broomfield documentary, “Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer,” which deals with the life of prostitute and serial killer Aileen Wuornos.

Oscar-nominated actress Charlize Theron, who portrays Wuornos in the feature film, “Monster,” appeared at the screening and participated in a discussion with Broomfield and Bonnie Abaunza of Amnesty International.

Museum Director Liebe Geft remarked that by raising disturbing and difficult questions on crime and punishment in our society, Wuornos was “profoundly relevant” to the mandate of the museum.

The following night, the museum screened “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” Sean Astin, who played Sam in all three “Rings” movies, participated in a question-and-answer session with Richard Trank, media projects director for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Moriah, its film division. n

Honors for Two

B’nai Tikvah Congregation held its second annual dinner-dance on Dec. 13, at which it honored Nursery School Director Marla Osband and teacher Marilyn Gold. Both have been affiliated with B’nai Tikvah’s Nursery School for over 25 years.

The day of celebration started with Shabbat services led by Rabbi Michael Beals, with guest Rabbi Toba August and guest Cantor Mimi Haselkorn, who is Osband’s niece. At the event, guests feasted on a kosher dinner catered by Bruno and danced to the strains of the David Kamenir Orchestra.

El Salvador Salvation

On Jan.12, Hebrew Union College rabbinical students Anne Brenner, Mark Miller, Ryan Bauer and Justus Baird, together with University of Judaism (UJ) rabbinical students Risa Weinstein, Andy Sugarman and Laurie Matzkin returned from a trip to El Salvador.

The seven were part of a rabbinical student delegation that traveled to Central America to examine how liberation theology could be incorporated in the mission of tikkun olam (heal the world).

The group spent one week in El Salvador working on agricultural projects with Catholic campesinos (rural farmers), who were former refugees of El Salvador’s bloody revolution. They also participated in the sustainable agriculture programs of La Coordinadora, the American Jewish World Service’s (AJWS) project partner in the southeast portion of the country.

The group studied Jewish texts with Dr. Leonard Fein. Participants also studied with members of their host community and Jose “Chencho” Alas, a former priest and founder-director of the Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America. Alas presented his Theology of Peace Workshop to the group.

The AJWS received funds from private donors to send the rabbinical students to El Salvador. It believes the trip is essential to train and educate future leaders of the Jewish community to be informed and engaged global citizens.

On Feb. 4, the UJ students hosted a lunch-and-learn event for the rabbinical students and faculty of both seminaries, at which they discussed the trip.

Stopping Hatred

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) honored two law-enforcement units and four individuals with the Helene & Joseph Sherwood Prize for Combating Hate at a ceremony Jan. 20 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The Sherwood prize is an annual award recognizing law-enforcement officers, units, agencies or programs for acts outside the normal scope of duties that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to combating bigotry and stereotyping.

The individual honorees were Scott Millington, deputy in charge, hate crimes unit, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office; Sgt Donald Mueller, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, West Hollywood Station; Stacy Ratnery, senior deputy district attorney, Ventura County, and Guninder Singh, Sheriff’s Department.

The unit honorees were: the Ontario Police Department’s Nazi Low-Rider Task Force and the San Bernandino County Sheriff’s Department community liaison unit.

Amanda Susskind the ADL’s Pacific Southwest Region director, spoke about the importance of supporting her organization’s fight against hate crimes. The guest speaker was John Miller, bureau chief and commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Critical Incident Management Bureau. He spoke about terrorism today”.

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Chabad to Make L.A. a Yeshiva City

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On Waring Avenue, west of La Brea Avenue, Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad is undergoing a $5 million expansion. Under construction is 35,000 square feet of dormitories and study rooms, including a light and airy beis midrash (study hall) that will double as a synagogue.

The yeshiva — the largest and oldest on the West Coast — currently accommodates about 80 male students at the high school level and another 60 in a three-year post-high school program, in which students study Torah more than 12 hours a day. Most of the students are from California, but the school receives and turns down scores of requests from out-of-state students who want to study there. Once renovations are complete, the yeshiva is expected to double its student capacity.

In a city like Los Angeles, where the Orthodox community grows exponentially each year, Ohr Elchonon’s success as an institution of learning should be de rigueur. It is expected that young Orthodox men will spend at least one year after high school bolstering their Jewish knowledge by intensely studying Torah in a yeshiva.

Many of those further to the right eschew secular colleges and following a centuries-old tradition, spending all their years after high school — until marriage — studying Talmud in a yeshiva. Given Los Angeles’ population, it would seem that yeshivas should thrive in the city.

While Los Angeles has a good number of kollels (full-time yeshivas for married men), which draw from throughout the United States, the Chabad yeshiva is the only one in the city that has taken off.

The respected yeshiva world remains centered on the East Coast, where institutions like Ner Yisroel in Baltimore or Beth Medrash in Lakewood, N.J., are overflowing with hundreds of students and have achieved international reputations for their Torah scholarship.

In Los Angeles, both Yeshiva Gedola and Valley Torah’s Ner Aryeh program have in the past few years instituted post-high school learning. Both are ultra-Orthodox boys high schools and both have instituted these programs to provide role models for the younger students, however, neither program has achieved any renown in the Torah world.

"I don’t know if [those places] will be able to duplicate what they have on the East Coast, because initially, those places [in the East] developed around a personality," said Rabbi Yaakov Krause, principal of Yeshiva Rav Isaacsohn Toras Emes. "People basically traveled there to sit at the feet of great sages like Rabbi Kotler in Lakewood, and once they were established, other people aspired to go there, because they want to be part of where the action is.

"Los Angeles is late in becoming a city of Torah, and we have fine talmudic scholars here and teachers and heads of high schools, but in terms of the elderly sages who are sitting at the heads of schools that they have back East, we don’t have that yet here," he explained.

Krause thinks that it is unlikely that a Los Angeles post-high school program would attract many local students. "Frankly speaking, for the boys of Los Angeles, once they have been through 12 years of school here, they like to spread their wings and have the Israel yeshiva experience or go to the Ivy League yeshivas back East," he said.

Others think that Los Angeles is not the right locale for a serious yeshiva, because it is an innately materialistic city.

"Los Angeles is too warm and cuddly and cozy and materialistic, and people want their sons away from the glitter of our comfortable L.A. life and in an atmosphere that is a little more spiritually oriented," said Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein of Project Next Step, who has had five sons attend yeshivas on the East Coast or in Israel. "I think one of the reasons the [non-Chabad] community has been reluctant to have a yeshiva here is because the goals that we have for our kids in learning is such that they require a sea change in atmosphere. You can’t really grow in learning if you are being coddled at home."

However, Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad has managed to thrive in Los Angeles on the strength of its reputation. Fifty years ago, Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, son of the famous pre-World War II Talmudic scholar Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, opened the Yeshiva as a West Coast version of Lakewood.

The yeshiva never attracted a large number of students. In 1977, rather than close it, he handed over control to Chabad on the stipulation that the yeshiva stay in the building it was in and continue to bear his father’s name. Chabad appointed Rabbi Ezra Schochet to be the rosh yeshiva (spritual head of the school) and imported a number of students from New York to liven up the atmosphere. As a result, the yeshiva started to grow.

"Rabbi Shochet is dynamic and known throughout the world for his scholarship; he was considered the No. 1 student in whatever yeshiva he went to," said Rabbi Mendel Spalter, the school’s administrator. "Once we bought him out here, it was never a question that he was going to be able to attract students."

In order to keep the students from finding life in Los Angeles too attractive, Ohr Elchonon has very strict rules about what the students are allowed to do. Classes start at 7 a.m. and finish at 10 p.m.

The school has a strict dress code of a white shirt and dark suit, and the boys can’t have anything that might distract them from their studies, like newspapers, radios, televisions, videos or DVDs. They are also not allowed to go to theaters or eat in restaurants, unless they are with family members.

Ohr Elchonon provides its graduates with a state-accredited bachelor of rabbinic studies, but it does not offer rabbinic ordination. The students are expected to learn the Torah lishmah (for its own sake). Most of its graduates seek rabbinic ordination from other institutions and go on to take rabbinical or other positions of communal service. Currently, 47 alumni of the yeshiva are serving in rabbinical positions in California.

"The basic philosophy of the yeshiva is to give every student the essence of Judaism," Schochet said. "They should know what it is about. The only way you can learn what Judaism is about is by learning the Torah."

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Healing the Spirit, the Torah Way

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Hinda Leah Scharfstein sees the Torah as more than just the original source of halachah, Jewish law, and the earliest telling of our nation’s birth.

“The Torah takes a holistic look at the individual, and it does tend to have a sort of healing effect on people,” said Scharfstein, the executive director of Bais Chana Women’s International, a New York-based nonprofit. “I attended my first holistic Torah retreat 20 years ago, and I have been involved on a professional and personal level with it ever since, and since then I have definitely felt better. My thinking has become healthier, and I feel more whole.”

It is this view of the Torah as holistic medicine in a book, a personal well-being road map for Jewish individuals, that is the impetus behind Bais Chana’s February Palm Spring’s retreat “A Spa for Mind, Body and Soul.” In between the glatt kosher spa meals and the hikes in the Indian canyons, speakers like Rabbi Manis Friedman, a Minnesota-based Orthodox rabbi who dabbles in homeopathic and holistic healing, and Shimona Tzukernik, a teacher and art therapist, will lecture on topics like “Sharpening the Senses: Changing the Way We Look and Listen” and “Seven Foods for Emotional Well-Being.”

But Bais Chana is only one of several groups that are part of a movement to integrate ideas of Eastern medicine and emotional healing with Torah learning and kabbalah to produce a kosher alternative to new-age philosophies.

Many members of the California Orthodox community take care of their families’ health by seeing acupuncturists and homeopaths, viewing these therapies as part of the way that bodies can be kept whole to serve God. Last Sunday, the Fairfax’s Torah Ohr Synagogue sponsored a daylong seminar on “Medicine and Kabbalah” by Rabbi Yuval Hacohen Asherov, an Israeli kabbalist and acupuncturist who discussed the halachic approach to healing, and the way that a healthy person has a “flow” going through the nefesh (one’s physicality), the ruach (one’s emotions) and the neshama (one’s spirituality).

Afterward participants were able to approach Asherov for counseling about the problems or blockages in their life.

In the Pacific Palisades, a Chabad-sponsored group, The Jewish Women’s Circle of Discovery, has sessions where participants explore “renewal and rebirth on a spiritual path of personal discovery.”

Popular Australian Orthodox mystic Rabbi Laibl Wolf comes to California several times a year to lecture about how kabbalah can help people overcome stress in their lives. More Orthodox Jews are clicking on Web sites, like www.jewishhealing.com and www.paradiseprinciple.com, where they can find out about how “Jewish medicine” — the advice that our sages have written over the years about how physical and spiritual health can actually help them become aware of, to quote Jewish Healing, “the soul’s role in healing.”

“Our main goal is to inform you that there is a higher medicine for Jews, one that is replete with diagnostic methods, treatment strategies, ethical teachings and spiritual profundities,” states the mission statement on the site.

“The whole idea of many of these holistic therapies is getting to the root of the problem,” said Dr. Ya’akov Gerlitz, an observant Jew who is the Jerusalem-based founder of Jewishhealing.com and a doctor of Chinese medicine. “For a Jew, the root of his condition is the soul — it is his connection to Hashem, and therefore all healing must include the soul. If a Jew is suffering, it is not enough to heal the body, even though the physical body is very precious to God, but you need to get through to the soul to get to the core of the issue.”

Gerlitz lectures and counsels people, writes articles on Jewish healing and runs a worldwide network of Jewish healers. He developed the Sefirotic Alignment Therapy (SAT), which uses the 10 kabbalistic sefirot (spheres of divine energy) to counsel people through emotional problems. His approach is part doctor, part counselor. While he will provide homeopathic remedies to children who have chronic colds or ear infections, he will also dispense Torah advice to people who have emotional problems, like an inability to see things through or fearing death (the Torah solution to that is to write a will).

“According to Jewish law, you are required to get the best healing you can get for an illness, so it doesn’t matter if you go to a Jewish doctor or not,” Gerlitz said. “But if you are already exploring going to the core of the matter then you should go only to a Jew. Healers bring their energy into the practice, and if you go to someone who has pagan ideology, it could affect the person by bringing in tumah (impurities) or kelipot (dark forces) into the patient. For holistic therapies, you definitely want a Jewish model.”

While these therapies might not appeal to everyone, even more conservative Orthodox rabbis think that they can’t hurt.

“It should not replace normative medicine,” said Rabbi Elazar Muskin of Young Israel of Century City. “But anything that can help one find a balance in life is good, and as long as it does not violate halachah, then what would be wrong with using different methods?”

“A Spa for Mind, Body and Soul” will take place Feb
16-19 for women and Feb 19-22 for couples at the Le Parker Meridian Hotel in
Palm Springs. For more information, visit www.baischana.org/couples.html  or call (800) 473-4801.

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